This user guide is updated all the time, and the public version is automatically updated daily from our internal sources. If you encounter a printed version, be aware that the online version is likely newer—and also hyperlinked.

FontLab VI is a professional font editor for Mac and Windows. We took FontLab Studio 5 and did a total rewrite from the ground up. Although some underlying FontLab Studio code and functions remain, FontLab VI is largely a brand-new application. It incorporates our favourite things from Fontographer, like the bold algorithm, and borrows conceptually from the very best implementations to make improvements, like in our Pen tool.

You can edit glyphs in isolation much like before, or in the context of other glyphs, and the tools and interface are more powerful and flexible now. In FontLab VI, we let you choose how you want to work, instead of us telling you that there is only one way to do things. The application is more streamlined and automatic, and gets out of your way as a designer to leave you free to design. The paint-bucket tool, smart corners, genius points, and several other innovations in the application were born out of this line of thinking.

File compatibility with FontLab Studio 5 .vfb for most files, including in the functions of open and export (Exception: can’t save MM files back to Studio 5). Open and save UFO. Open files from Fontographer and Glyphs.

Now our users can run FontLab VI on either or both Mac and Windows easily, and the two platforms are permanently in sync. Having ~98% shared code means we add new features on both platforms simultaneously, and most bugs are in common and fixed on both platforms at the same time. Even if you only use one platform, you will benefit from users and testing on the other.